Israel Edelsohn

Israel Edelsohn was born in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1951 and immigrated to Israel with his family at the age of 15. He graduated from the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem in conducting and composition, and went on to train as a conductor in Europe. Eventually he was accepted as a Conducting Fellow at the prestigious Berkshire Music Festival in Tanglewood. There he met Leonard Bernstein, who became his mentor.

Raised as a secular atheist with little knowledge of Judaism, and struggling all his life with a “constant search for the truth,” Edelsohn eventually became influenced by friends and new acquaintances in the Chabad Chassidic community to adopt a Torah-observant way of life. Since then, he has continued to work in the field of classical as well as Jewish music, teaching, composing, playing, arranging, and recording.